Moscow opposition complains of intimidation

The ruling United Russia party expects a strong showing in municipal elections despite Russia's ailing economy.

Miriam ElderOctober 10, 2009 08:00Updated May 30, 2010 12:10

A young communist supporter holds up a red Soviet flag during a demonstration in central Moscow Aug. 7, 2009. The Communist Party remains Russia’s most popular opposition party. (Alexander Natruskin/Reuters)

MOSCOW, Russia — For the past few weeks, Moscow has looked positively democratic.

Campaign posters line the streets and flutter above the roads as the city gears up for municipal elections on Sunday.

Yet underneath the veneer of competition lies a darker reality.

The vote for the Moscow City Duma, or parliament, is the most high-profile test of United Russia — the party that overwhelmingly rules Russia — since the financial crisis hit last year. That has not been lost on the authorities: Parties challenging United Russia’s dominance have complained of an unprecedented degree of pressure and manipulation as the party tries to show an increasingly disgruntled populace that its grip on power remains strong.

“This is the dirtiest election we’ve had,” said Viktor Ilyukhin, a State Duma deputy and active member of the Communist Party. “They’re scared because of the crisis, that people will vote against them and they will lose their power.”

He accused United Russia of preparing to falsify election results by encouraging multiple voting, busing voters to polling sites and using easily manipulated boxes that are brought to the homes of voters who are too ill or old to go to the polling booths.

“We have gotten information that teachers are asking children to find out who their parents are voting for, and that at workplaces people are being told to vote only for United Russia,” Ilyukhin said.

The Communist Party remains Russia’s most popular opposition party, though on a national level the communists are accused of having an agreement with United Russia in order to maintain a presence in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. A recent poll by VTsIOM, a Russian pollster, found that if Sunday’s elections were presidential elections, the head of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, would come in second, taking 5 percent of the vote compared to President Dmitry Medvedev’s 52 percent (Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not figure among the options).

The Communist Party currently holds four seats in the 35-seat Moscow City Duma, compared to United Russia’s 29 and two belonging to Yabloko, a liberal party. The city body oversees a $40 billion budget.

Ilyukhin estimated that the communists would garner 30 percent support if the election were held in a free and fair manner. “The way it is, we are simply hoping to hold on to the seats that we have,” he said.

United Russia disputes that, as well as all the claims put forward by the communists. “They’ve shown no evidence,” said Viktor Selivyorstev, a candidate from the United Russia party. “Nothing they have said corresponds to reality.”

Selivyorstev said he was confident United Russia would receive a high showing — and fairly — and downplayed the effects of the economic crisis on the electorate.

“During my campaign, I held over 70 meetings with citizens and not once did I hear anything unpleasant,” he said. “We are aware [of the country’s problems] and we understand what we are doing, because we are the party in power.”